


Shallan in Asgard

by FeatherWriter



Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson, Thor (Movies)
Genre: And by that I mean Shallan has a crush on Jasnah which is pretty much canon anyway, Asgard, Asgardian AU, Crossover, Gen, Mid-WoR, Shasnah - Freeform, Sorta if you squint - Freeform, Words of Radiance spoilers, sad fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-06-02
Packaged: 2018-02-03 02:09:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1727258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeatherWriter/pseuds/FeatherWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A reimagining of the Stormlight Archive characters in Asgard, told from Shallan's point of view. Shallan as a student from Earth who gets caught up in the events of the Asgardian Kholin family. Events take place about the middle of Words of Radiance, but in the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than Roshar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shallan in Asgard

As Shallan Davar walked the gorgeous thoroughfares and high sweeping arches of Asgard, she couldn’t help but think that something was missing. Hearing the way Jasnah had described her otherworldly home had been unbelievable, and while Asgard’s sights were nothing short of breathtaking, with its sweeping vistas, elaborate carvings, soaring vaults, and seemingly impossible waterfalls, there was something… _off_ about the entire experience.

She knew she should be grateful. How many humans had walked these streets? She was one of very few, she assumed. King Elhokar had made it rather clear when she’d first arrived that this was not a place for ‘Midgardians’ and the only reason she hadn’t been sent back to Earth immediately had been that the king’s uncle and advisor had vouched for her. Highprince Dalinar had said he saw something trustworthy within her character and that “if Jasnah had trusted her, we should welcome her as one of the family.”

Shallan smiled faintly as she walked, remembering the way Jasnah had indeed trusted her. The last year still seemed like a dream. Shallan had always thought of Jasnah Kholin as someone nearly divine, but finding out that this brilliant scholar was actually from another world, a person that some would call a goddess?

Not that Jasnah would ever let her use that term. The princess had always been very quick to correct her.

“The fact that I am from a different realm with a higher level of technology and understanding of physics and science does not make me a divinity, Miss Davar,” Jasnah had always said. “Your society has advanced beyond the need for such superstitions by this point, a development for which I am rather grateful.”

Jasnah had come to study Midgard. She wanted to understand Earth and its cultures and its peoples. She’d been fascinated by its histories and the technologies that humans developed.

Shallan had been baffled at first. Why would someone from a culture so advanced be interested in a ‘backwards’ planet like Earth. But Jasnah had said that all knowledge was valuable and all things should be remembered and understood.

That was one of the things Shallan had loved most about working with Jasnah. Despite all the perfectly justified reasons she could have had, Jasnah never made anyone feel as though she was better than them. She was incredible, and yet there was something about her that made Shallan feel like she was valuable too. It was unbelievable to Shallan that her world and her life were interesting, even to someone from Asgard.

Well, Jasnah could say she wasn’t a goddess all she liked, but in Shallan’s opinion, she seemed to be showing herself to be a hypocrite when she did so. If she _really_ wanted to convince Shallan that she wasn’t divine, the least she could do was stop being so unspeakably perfect all the time. There was an inhuman poise and grace and wisdom to Jasnah. She was beautiful and dangerous and completely unknowable. She was everything Shallan would expect a goddess to be.

But she was not immortal, it seemed.

Shallan stopped in the midst of her walk, letting the beautifully-clad Asgardians continue to pass by around her in the busy street. Numbly, she made her way out of the flow of people, trying to get out of the way. She walked over to one of the stone railings on the elevated roadway, looking out over the city beyond. She’d always had a good memory, but this was one time when she wished she hadn’t.

The memories of that day surfaced, that horrible day when she’d found out just how mortal even a goddess could be. Everything had been going so perfectly. Jasnah had made plans to return home, and she had decided to bring Shallan with her. There had even been talk of a possible union between Shallan and Jasnah’s cousin, Adolin.

They’d come so unexpectedly.

It was all over so fast, so shockingly, numbingly fast. Shallan had never felt so helpless, watching those assassins, unable to do anything to stop them, barely managing to get away with her life. She’d been isolated, with no way to contact Jasnah’s family to tell them, and no way to reach them at all. They were expecting her and Jasnah both, but she was alone and stranded on Earth. She hadn’t thought it possible to feel stranded somewhere she had never left, on the world she had known as home for all of her life.

Yet she had.

Finding Tyn had seemed an incredible stroke of luck. Yes, the woman was a fugitive, but she _was_ from Asgard, and more importantly, she had known how to take Shallan there. Jasnah had thought that the Bifrost was the only way in and out of Asgard, but Tyn had known of secret paths between the worlds. Shallan cursed herself for not realizing what an odd coincidence it was that an Asgardian criminal was found nearby so soon after Jasnah had been assassinated. Her oversight had nearly cost her everything when Tyn had realized who she was.

Instead, Shallan had a more _satisfying_ memory of her second reminder that Asgardians were not immortal.

Shallan sighed, turning around from the overlook and leaning her back against the railing, watching the people in the street instead. Try as she might, she couldn’t pin down what was bothering her about Asgard. Everything seemed to be wonderful. Despite her early complications, Jasnah’s family had taken her in and provided for her, letting her stay even as a trespasser on their world. Adolin had taken her on tours of the city and the palace, and she was finding herself growing rather fond of him. She hadn’t seen much of his brother, though the others said that Renarin had always been a quiet type.

That bodyguard of theirs was nearly insufferable, though he apparently wasn’t Asgardian. Vanir, she thought he’d said he was, in the midst of his talk of disapproval for Asgardians and Midgardians alike. She wasn’t sure what exactly it was that she’d done to offend him. She had a feeling it might be nothing. Perhaps this “Kaladin” was simply an unfriendly person in general. He was good at his job though, even if he did seem to be scowling all the way through it.

It wasn’t grumpy guardsmen that were throwing her off, however. There was still something… lacking about this whole experience. Some part of this world and its people that didn’t live up to what she had expected. Expectations were like fine pottery, she knew. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.

 _That’s it,_ Shallan realized suddenly, feeling a surge of accomplishment as she figured out her problem, quickly followed by a crippling sadness as she realized what it was. The city was incredible and the people were beautiful, but they didn’t match her _expectations_. She had based all of her ideas of what Asgard was, what the city would be like, and what Asgardians were like on Jasnah. Compared to her, even all of this wonder and majesty seemed hollow somehow. The other Asgardians were amazing, but none of them could live up to the woman Shallan had spent this last year studying with.

Closing her eyes, Shallan shook her head slightly. She had always thought that Jasnah was so incredible and so perfect because she was Asgardian. She had assumed that these impossible attributes had been otherworldly. Yet now, she could see the other Asgardians, and they all seemed a pale imitation.

Even among gods, it seemed, Jasnah Kholin had been in a league of her own.


End file.
